Waking Up Eutychus
I was roaming through the local Hobby Lobby when suddenly, in front of me, there was a giant Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus blow up. When I say “giant” I’m talking about yard blow ups that were probably 20 feet high. As I continued perusing through the store, I noticed what to me was an odd combination of Christmas stuff, some honoring Jesus as the Christ-child, others playing on the more secular slant of this holiday.
Why is it that our culture (and others) enjoys mixing fact with fiction for important subjects like this? It’s not really so hard to understand when you stop to consider the beliefs, and unbelief, of those who make up our culture. We are, more than ever in the past, a pluralistic nation, Christianity increasingly being pushed to the fringes. But this mixture of facts with fiction has been going on for a long time. We take something like the truth of Saint Nicolaus, known to be a good man who gave to those in need, and have evolved it into our modern Santa Claus. “It’s all in fun,” many will say. But how many have taken the myth of Santa and transferred it into what they believe to be the myth of the Christ-child?
Has the devil been successful in his attempt to make this holiday so secular, so filled with legend, so apt to mix fact and fancy, that the manger scene becomes just another fun myth we portray yet don’t believe was real?
C.S. Lewis once said, “As this Christmas approaches, let us do more of what matters and much less of what doesn’t.” He also said, “All over the world men and women will meet on December 25th to do what is a very old-fashioned and, if you like, a very pagan thing – to sing and feast because a God has been born. Are you uncertain whether it is more than a myth? Well, if it is, then our last hope is gone. But is the opposite explanation not worth trying?” Some said Lewis had a touch of Ebenezer Scrooge in him when it came to Christmas, but like many things, he saw through much of the hype. He thought the gift-giving and card-sending was a commercial racket. He once wrote an essay called “Xmas and Christmas” in which he created a fictional land called Niatirb (Britain spelled backward) that celebrated two festivals, Xmas was a festival of excesses, with participants frantically exchanging cards and gifts, often reluctantly. The other, Christmas, was a much simpler, quieter celebration centered on the birth of a child.
Here's the thing. We can compare the excesses of the typical American Christmas to the simplicity of a Christ honoring celebration, but neither type of celebration is demonstrated or commanded in scripture by Jesus or his apostles who created the New Testament pages. Yes, the gospels tell us the story of nativity, much more earthy and dangerous than our typical Christmas scenes depict, but when it comes to festival, there is only one we are told to celebrate: the Lord’s Supper. God wanted our simple focus to be on the sacrifice he made through himself, as his son (God in the flesh), died for our sins, then was raised from the grave, providing salvation to all who humbly submit to him in faith.
As we search for the best approach to the Christmas season, there is nothing wrong with remembering the birth of Jesus in a manger to Mary and Joseph, the announcement to the shepherds nearby who tended sheep probably used in temple sacrifices (one reason they were chosen?), recalling the travels of wise-men from the east sometime later who provided gifts to honor Jesus’ birth (maybe aware because they’d learned from those Hebrews left in Babylon during the exile many years before). It is an amazing story of God’s advent into the lives of we humans. Just let the focus be there, remove as much clutter from the culture as possible, and then keep remembering the story, as the adult Jesus truly demonstrates he is Messiah. Let the search lead to him!
Question: What is your favorite Christmas tradition that honors Jesus? Honor him by taking part in communion and church services to honor him every week, as he’s asked of us (Luke 22:17-20; Hebrews 10:25).
(also find at: rickwilliswrites.wordpress.com)
Why is it that our culture (and others) enjoys mixing fact with fiction for important subjects like this? It’s not really so hard to understand when you stop to consider the beliefs, and unbelief, of those who make up our culture. We are, more than ever in the past, a pluralistic nation, Christianity increasingly being pushed to the fringes. But this mixture of facts with fiction has been going on for a long time. We take something like the truth of Saint Nicolaus, known to be a good man who gave to those in need, and have evolved it into our modern Santa Claus. “It’s all in fun,” many will say. But how many have taken the myth of Santa and transferred it into what they believe to be the myth of the Christ-child?
Has the devil been successful in his attempt to make this holiday so secular, so filled with legend, so apt to mix fact and fancy, that the manger scene becomes just another fun myth we portray yet don’t believe was real?
C.S. Lewis once said, “As this Christmas approaches, let us do more of what matters and much less of what doesn’t.” He also said, “All over the world men and women will meet on December 25th to do what is a very old-fashioned and, if you like, a very pagan thing – to sing and feast because a God has been born. Are you uncertain whether it is more than a myth? Well, if it is, then our last hope is gone. But is the opposite explanation not worth trying?” Some said Lewis had a touch of Ebenezer Scrooge in him when it came to Christmas, but like many things, he saw through much of the hype. He thought the gift-giving and card-sending was a commercial racket. He once wrote an essay called “Xmas and Christmas” in which he created a fictional land called Niatirb (Britain spelled backward) that celebrated two festivals, Xmas was a festival of excesses, with participants frantically exchanging cards and gifts, often reluctantly. The other, Christmas, was a much simpler, quieter celebration centered on the birth of a child.
Here's the thing. We can compare the excesses of the typical American Christmas to the simplicity of a Christ honoring celebration, but neither type of celebration is demonstrated or commanded in scripture by Jesus or his apostles who created the New Testament pages. Yes, the gospels tell us the story of nativity, much more earthy and dangerous than our typical Christmas scenes depict, but when it comes to festival, there is only one we are told to celebrate: the Lord’s Supper. God wanted our simple focus to be on the sacrifice he made through himself, as his son (God in the flesh), died for our sins, then was raised from the grave, providing salvation to all who humbly submit to him in faith.
As we search for the best approach to the Christmas season, there is nothing wrong with remembering the birth of Jesus in a manger to Mary and Joseph, the announcement to the shepherds nearby who tended sheep probably used in temple sacrifices (one reason they were chosen?), recalling the travels of wise-men from the east sometime later who provided gifts to honor Jesus’ birth (maybe aware because they’d learned from those Hebrews left in Babylon during the exile many years before). It is an amazing story of God’s advent into the lives of we humans. Just let the focus be there, remove as much clutter from the culture as possible, and then keep remembering the story, as the adult Jesus truly demonstrates he is Messiah. Let the search lead to him!
Question: What is your favorite Christmas tradition that honors Jesus? Honor him by taking part in communion and church services to honor him every week, as he’s asked of us (Luke 22:17-20; Hebrews 10:25).
(also find at: rickwilliswrites.wordpress.com)
Posted in Waking Up Eutychus